Voice over IP traffic is set to double over the next
year according to a new study from research firm
Infonetics.
This growth is expected to be driven by the advent of new
applications hitting the market, service providers have
predicted.
The study showed that 83% of service providers from North
America, Europe, Asia Pacific and central and Latin America believe
new applications and services will encourage people to adopt VoIP
products. Both incoming and outgoing VoIP traffic will almost
double over 12 months, with long distance VoIP traffic being the
fastest grower, service providers stated.
That new revenue potential is in turn driving service providers
to look to VoIP as a means to claw back revenue lost from
traditional phone services to the mobile operator world.
Additionally, the research showed that SIP is becoming the top
protocol for communications between softswitch and voice
application servers and media servers. SIP will reach 100%
penetration throughout the networks of the service providers that
responded to the survey by 2007.
Stephane Teral, principle analyst at Infonetics for service
provider VoIP, IP multimedia subsystems and fixed mobile
convergence, commented: “No longer is VoIP being offered only by
specialist providers and VoIP pioneers, but by all types of
providers in all regions of the world. Next generation voice
services have elevated from lab curiosity to market reality. Still,
this will not be an overnight process; replacing installed legacy
gear in high teledensity areas like North America and Western
Europe will take at least 10 to 15 years.”